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Interplast team to conduct plastic and reconstructive surgery in Vanuatu

BY: Loop Pacific 05:18, April 15, 2017

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Patients with conditions including cleft lip and palate, scarring from burns, hand injuries and tumours are urged to contact the surgical unit at the Port Vila Central Hospital for an appointment with surgical teams that will be visiting Vanuatu.

The team comprising of specialists from Australia and New Zealand will be in Vanuatu from 21 to 29 April.The Interplast medical team will conduct a consultation clinic on Friday 20 April in the outpatient’s clinic at the Port Vila Central Hospital.

Plastic and reconstructive surgery will be performed at Port Vila Central Hospital from 24 to 28 April.

Patients with common skin diseases or cosmetic conditions will be excluded from this consultation.

The team will be led by Dr Ian Holten and will include two surgeons, two anaesthetists, two nurses and a physiotherapist.

The physiotherapist will assist the surgical team clinically with some of the patients seen and assist in their rehabilitation.

Interplast medical teams, funded by the Australian Government and Rotary Clubs in Australia and New Zealand have been visiting Vanuatu since 1985 to provide free surgical intervention programs to relieve people of disability.

The Port Vila program will be the 32nd Interplast visit to Vanuatu.

This program is funded by Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Interplast.

The Australian Government funds approximately 50 surgical teams every year in the Pacific.

The assistance, which is managed by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, fills specific gaps in local medical services and provides capacity building to local medical staff.

For further information about Interplast’s programs in Vanuatu, contact: